Princeton Review Advanced Vocab Flashcards
Abjure
to renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to avoid
Abrogate
to abolish or annul by authority; to put down
Abscission
the act of cutting off or removing
Acarpous
effete; no longer fertile; worn out
Accretion
growth; enlargement by successive addition; building up
Admonish
to reprove; to express warning or disapproval
Adroit
adept; dexterous
Adumbrate
to foreshadow or intimate; to suggest sketchily; to obscure
Anathema
a solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing
Anodyne
soothing; something that
Antipathy
aversion; dislike
Antithetical
diametrically opposed, as in antithesis
Apocryphal
of dubious authenticity or origin; spurious
Apogee
farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith
Apostate
one who abandons long-held religious or political convictions
Apotheosis
deification; glorification to godliness
Apposite
appropriate; pertinent; relevant; apropos
Apprise
to give notice to; to inform
Arabesque
a complex, ornate design; also a dance position
Arcane
mysterious; abstruse; esoteric; knowable only to initiates
Arrant
impudent
Artless
completely without guile; natural; without artificiality
Ascetic
someone practicing self-denial; austere; stark
Asperity
severity; rigor; roughness; harshness; acrimony; irritability
Aspersion
an act of defamation or maligning; animadversion
Assay
an analysis; examination; test; to put to a test
Asseverate
to aver; to allege; to assert
Assiduous
diligent; hard-working; sedulous
Attenuate
to rarefy; to weaken or make thinner
Augury
omen; portent
Auspice
protection or support; patronage
Auspicious
favorable; propitious; successful; prosperous
Aver
to affirm; to assert; to prove; to justify; to asseverate
Baleful
sinister; pernicious; ominous
Bane
cause of injury; poison; source of harm
Beatify
to bless, make happy, or ascribe a virtue to; to regard as saintly
Bedizen
to adorn, especially in a cheap, showy manner; to festoon
Bellicose
belligerent; pugnacious; warlike
Bilge
bulge; the protuberance of a cask
Blandish
to toady or fawn
Blithe
carefree; merry
Boisterous
loud; noisy; rough; lacking restraint
Boor
a rude or insensitive person; lout
Burnish
to polish; to rub to a shine
Byzantine
labyrinthine; complex
Cabal
a scheme or plot; a group of plotters
Cachinnate
to laugh loudly
Cadge
to sponge or mooch
Cajole
to inveigle, coax, or wheedle
Calumniate
to slander; to make a false accusation
Calumny
slander; aspersion
Caparison
to adorn or bedizen
Captious
calculated to confuse or ntrap in argument; hypercritical; caviling
Caret
an insertion mark (^) used by editors and proofreaders
Cavil
to find fault without good reason
Celerity
speed; alacrity
Chasten
to chastise or correct
Chauvinist
a blindly devoted patriot
Chimera
an illusion; originally, an imaginary fire breathing she-monster
Churlish
boorish; vulgar; loutish; difficult and intractable
Coalesce
to come together; to fuse or unite
Coda
concluding section of a musical or literary piece
Coeval
of the same period; coexisting
Commensurate
matching corresponding or proportionate in degree, size or amount
Condemn
to scorn or despise
Contumacious
insubordinate; rebellious
Corrigible
capable of being set right; correctable; reparable
Countenance
to approve of or tolerate; face; composure
Cozen
to deceive,beguile, or hoodwink
Craven
contemptibly fainthearted; lacking any courage
Curmudgeon
a crust, ill-tempered coot; a misanthrope
Daunt
to cow or dismay
Debacle
rout; fiasco; complete failure
Decorous
correct; formal; marked by decorum
Defalcate
to embezzle or misappropriate
denigrate
to blacken; to belittle; to sully; to defame; to disparage
Denouement
an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot
Deposition
accretion; depositing;building up layer by layer; official testimony
Deprecate
to disparage or belittle; to put down
Depredate
to plunder, pillage, ravage, or destroy; to exploit in a predatory manner
Derivative
unoriginal; obtained from another source
Descant
to comment at length
Descry
to discriminate or discern
Desuetude
disuse
Desultory
random; thoughtless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose
Detraction
slandering; verbal attack; aspersion
Diaphanous
transparent; gauzy
Diffident
reserved, shy, or unassuming; lacking in self confidence
Digress
to stay from the point, to go off on a tangent
Dilatory
causing delay; procrastinating
Din
loud, sustained noise
Dirge
a song of grief or lamentation
Disaffect
to estrange or alienate the affection of
Discomfit
to defeat; to put down
Discursive
digressive; passing from one topic to another
Dissolution
disintegration; looseness in morals
Distrait
distracted; absent minded, especially due to anxiety
Doggerel
trivial, poorly constructed verse
Dross
slag, waste, or foreign matter; impurity; surface scum
Dulcet
melodious; harmonious; mellifluous
Dynamo
generator, forceful, energetic person
Edacious
voracious; devouring
Edifying
enlightening
Effluvia
outflow in a stream of particles; a noxious odor or vapor
Effrontery
boldness; impudence; arrogance
Effusive
gushing; excessively demonstrative
Egress
exit
Encomium
glowing and enthusiastic praise; panegyric; tribute; eulogy
Endemic
restricted or peculiar to a particular region; indigenous
Engender
to cause; to produce; to give rise to
Enormity
excessive wickedness; evilness
Enormousness
great size
Ephemeral
evanescent; fleeting short-lived
Epicure
one devoted to sensual pleasure; particularly in food and drink; gourmand; sybarite
Episodic
loosely connected; not flowing logically
Epithet
disparaging word or phrase
Epitome
embodiment; quintessence
Equanimity
composure; self-possession
Equipoise
equal distribution of weight equilibrium
Errant
traveling; itinerant; peripatetic
Eschew
to shun or avoid
Estimable
worthy; formidable
Evince
to show clearly; to indicate
Excoriate
to censure scathingly; to upbraid
Exegesis
critical examination; explication
Exemplar
typical or standard specimen; paradigm; model
Expatiate
to descant; to discourse; to discuss or write about at length
Expiate
to atone or make amends for
Expostulate
to argue earnestly in order to dissuade, correct, or protest
Expurgate
to remove obscenity; to purify; to censor
Exscind
to cut out or extirpate
Extant
existing; not destroyed or lost
Extirpate
to destroy; to exterminate; to cut out; to escind
Fallow
untilled; inactive; dormant
Fatuous
silly; inanely foolish
Feckless
ineffectual; irresponsible
Felicitous
apt; suitably expressed; well-chosen; apropos
Fetid
stinking; smelly; malodorous
Fetter
to shackle; to put in chains
Filigree
an ornamental work; especially of delicate lace-like patterns
Florid
flowery; ruddy; ornate
Foment
to incite; to rouse
Forbearance
patience; unwillingness to wait